Trying to get back into the swing of working now that I'm a) home and b) don't need to work on something else. I sent in my registration for the San Diego Comic-con masquerade. @_@ I haven't gotten any sort of confirmation yet, though, so I don't know if I'm in, or waitlisted, or what.

So . . . what am I up to? ~ Re-dyeing the stupid tassels. Can't get the color/gradation how I want. ~ Did the Magic Smooth on the inside of the armor pieces. Also, somehow I failed to notice one of the pieces got distorted; it will have to be redone. Doh. But I am very very close to being done with the Magic Smooth (and ready to spend the rest of my life sanding). ~ Putting some bling subtle decorative sequins on the train. ~ Lamenting my inability to use a rolled hem foot.

I finished Orlouge's artificial nails, which I cannot justify having done before other things but HEY I felt like it. Apparently you can't get nails that aren't french-tip (square) at the drugstore, so I filed them down. The polish brand is Sinful Colors . . . lol.

So, how do you paint nails that aren't attached to hands? With straws and Blu-tak, that's how! Yes, I have a bat soap dispenser. I got it for Halloween and I thought it was too cute to put away. I admit I am still tempted, since I have a wide variety of them for BJD reasons, to put gems on the nails. x_X; UBER GAY.

I will likely post photos of what the process looks like when I actually use this technique for Orlouge. He has some sort of hair thingies on the left side, they're not very well rendered but they remind me of kanzashi (kimono hair ornaments). I was working on doll costumes for which I wanted to have some metal or metal-looking pieces. (Pictures of it will be posted to my doll journal house_of_darkly, hopefully by later tonight.) Originally, I intended the designs to be cut-out, but I couldn't find any way to cut through the brass; even though I was only using .10 thickness. I played with using thin plastic (stencil blanks and plastic folders), but they're somewhat floppy and can't conform to curves well (the cut-out sections stick up). I've done engraving into brass sheet before, but it's difficult to keep a steady line.

So, I decided to go wandering Google for information on acid etching metals. The information on the web about this is a little shaky; some of the tutorials are confusingly written, and there are a variety of different iterations of how to do it (for example, you can also etch using electric current). This is the best one I found for the way I chose to do it, largely due to time constraints. I WILL post more details when I have more photos of the process.

The short version! You take some brass and mask off or use a "resist" on the sections you DON'T want your etchant to eat into. In my case, this meant using contact paper (shelf liner) or Sharpie on the front side, Sharpie along the exposed edge, and then packing tape on the back. I drew my designs on paper, transferred them onto the front side of the contact paper with a lightbox and a Sharpie. Then I cut the outside shape of the wing piece, peeled off the backing and stuck it to my brass. I cut the details gently with an Exacto while it was on the brass; it's too hard to get thin sections to stick right if you cut it out first.

Then you do your setup. You pour about 1/4" of etchant into a container large enough to fit your biggest piece (I used a ceramic casserole dish). The ferric chloride is NOT something you want to get on you (it's not going to eat through your hand like a horror flick but wear gloves!). I put wire "handles" on my pieces with more packing tape. You have to swish your piece around in the etchant for about half an hour; the longer you leave it, the deeper the etch; and the more times you've used it, the longer it will take to get the result you want (maybe two-five minutes longer each time).

This is the result. The necklace piece was very small and I didn't use any contact paper, just Sharpie. Better for fine control but bad on large areas.